Grant County Sheriff's Office awarded gang grant

GRANT COUNTY — The Grant County Sheriff’s Office obtained a $252,236 grant to use for combating gang activity last week.

The grant pays salaries, benefits, training and equipment, for two full time position assigned to focus on gang activity, primarily in the Larson Air Force Base housing area.

The grant was awarded by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, Grant County Undersheriff John Turley said.

The program begins Aug. 1, and should last about 15 months with the funding they were given.

Two gang resource officers will be hired, he said. The grant stipulates the two officers must be hired in an effort to prevent job positions from being eliminated.

Former Deputy Earl Romig and Reserve Officer Chris Kanoff will be hired for the positions, Turley said.

Romig’s duties will include distributing information concerning gang activity on the sheriff’s office Web site. The information will include how to recognize gangs, what to do about witnessed gang activity, how to prevent and protect yourself from street crimes, information about wanted suspects and cases where they are seeking information from the public.

Kanoff’s duties will include creating community watch groups on the base housing area. The base will be divided into four districts with intensified neighborhood canvassing to prevent street crimes.

“We’re going to put forth the effort to give them the equipment, the information and the person necessary for the people to start taking back their neighborhoods from those who have disrupted and terrorized those neighborhoods,” Turley said. “We will help, but we have got to do this communally.”

He said he believes the neighborhoods will be much safer as a result of the new resources but still needs the community to help.

Both Romig and Kanoff will work with the juvenile court system to obtain youth required to do community service. The juveniles will be used to remove graffiti on the base in public areas.

In addition, they will use the Department of Corrections work release program to use inmates for the graffiti removal program.

Previously, there were not enough resources to remove the graffiti, Turley said. A pressure washer and auxiliary water tank were purchased with a previous grant for the program.

He said the sheriff’s office can also help private property owners obtain paint to cover graffiti.

The gang resource officers will work with the Wahluke School District resource officer to create preventative measures concerning gang activity among elementary and middle school students.

Equipment to be purchased through the grant includes two patrol vehicles, portable radios, video cameras for surveillance, digital cameras to document evidence, laptop computers and some office equipment.

Turley and Chief Deputy Dave Ponozzo worked together to write a description of gang activity in Grant County for the grant application.

“Over the last six years, Grant County has become a quasi-safe haven for more than 20 to 25 identifiable Latino gangs, 350 documented gang members with up to 200 more as associates,” the authorities wrote. “With the prison influence from California to the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, the Grant County Sheriff’s Office and other local law enforcement agencies have investigated numerous homicides where bodies being dumped have little more than tattoos as identifiers, drive-by shootings on a weekly basis and even a mafia style hit gone awry leading to the conviction of two brothers.”

Since the beginning of the year, there were 24 gang-related shootings resulting in three homicides in Grant County.

“Within the last two years we have observed the increased activity of outlaw motorcycle gangs give rise to a renewed effort to gain a foothold in our community,” they wrote.

Two confirmed motorcycle gangs were seen in Moses Lake over Memorial Day weekend leading to a confrontation at a bar, the authorities reported.

“Without funding and additional ongoing assistance, no one agency has the ability to impact this growing tide of violence that comes with the influx of these and other gangs bent on criminal activity and the disrespect and intimidation of our law abiding citizens.”